A jury of Laura Hartman, Berkeley; Juan Miro, AIA, Austin; and Donald Frank Gatzke, AIA, New Orleans, selected seven projects to be recipients of AIA Fort Worth’s 2003 design awards. Civic and cultural projects topped Fort Worth’s list of winners this year and include a museum expansion, ballpark, two theater additions, and a natatorium. The winners will receive their awards at the chapter’s annual gala December 4.

Merit Awards

Amon Carter Museum Expansion
Fort Worth
by design architect Phillip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects Inc., with architect of record Carter & Burgess, Inc.

The primary goal of this world-class Western and American art museum expansion was to create more space for display of its permanent collection. The museum tripled its exhibit space and quadrupled its linear wall space, allowing display of 600-700 objects, compared to 200 objects prior to the addition. The architects removed two earlier additions, added back a total of 90,000 square feet to the 19,000-square-foot remaining area of the original design. The overall scheme maintains the architectural spotlight on the original 1961 building by adding a simple, elegant volume as a backdrop. The architects recast the unchanged original building as a magnificent entry porch to the undeniably contemporary addition. In contrast, the addition’s lantern dome above the new entry atrium, visible over the building top, provides the main source of natural light to the expanded facility.

Dr Pepper/7UP Ballpark
Frisco, Tex.
by design architect David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services Inc., with architect of record HKS Inc.

The first pitch was thrown in April 2003 at this 10,500-seat, double-A Minor League ballpark. The client, a group of public and private entities, desired the project to be designed and constructed in less than 24 months within a $25,000,000 budget. Since the lead-time for rolled structural steel limited its use for a typical upper deck, the design team proposed that the entire seating bowl be built on grade going down 14 feet from the level of the main concourse. Instead of a continuous upper deck, this design creates a series of independent, stick-built structures that sit along the back of the on-grade seating bowl. Since the main concourse sits at the same level as the street and the back of the seating bowl, the physically challenged never experience a ramp or elevator. The individual pavilions draw their cues from a coastal Galveston aesthetic. They offer concessions and restrooms on the main concourse and 29 luxury suites and open decks on the upper level. Open-air bridges connect the pavilions at the second level. The design team originally was retained to complete a 65-acre mixed-use master plan, which includes this ballpark as a centerpiece to a hockey practice facility, hotel, office space, multifamily residential complex, and retail development. Photo © Hedrich Blessing

University of North Texas Health Science Center Garage & Quadrangle
Fort Worth
by Gideon Toal

The University of North Texas Health Science Center’s growing enrollment exacerbated the acute parking deficit in the Forth Worth’s adjacent Cultural District, especially during events at the district’s Will Rogers Center. The university commissioned an 800-car garage, for which the City of Fort Worth and the Fat Stock Show (an annual rodeo and livestock exhibit) contributed funds towards construction on the condition that the garage be available for evening and weekend use and be readily accessible to the Will Rogers Center and Cultural District. The architects ultimately revised the campus master plan to accommodate the garage plus two new structures already planned. To this end, and without a commensurate budget increase, they added two major elements: a quadrangle and an entry plaza. The quadrangle provides a green center to the campus as well as pedestrian access to the garage, while the entry plaza provides a Cultural District identity for the campus and visual access to the Will Rogers Center. The future flanking buildings will offer restaurant and retail space at ground level opening onto the plaza.

Holub Residence
by Norman D. Ward, Architect

Sited along a terraced bluff overlooking a nature preserve, the house’s simple, white stucco box forms rest in Japanese manner on a white gravel perimeter skirt at grade. The street’s façade—a pair of cubic pavilions, the dining room and the library—bracket an entry court. Roof lanterns toplight both pavilions. A bridge-like walk over the loose stone entry court leads to the front door, which is flanked by fixed, planar, wood-sided walls seemingly pull open, as though shutters. The central living volume divides private spaces to the north from public and support spaces, including the garage, to the south. The architect treated the living room walls as slipped planes that allow natural light to be introduced at critical points in the space. Symmetrical doors lead to the rear deck, which is held figuratively between the master bedroom and the breakfast area, and provides an expansive view over the canopy of adjacent treetops.

Casa Mañana Theatre
Fort Worth
by Gideon Toal

Constructed in 1958 in less than 120 days, Casa Mañana Theatre is one of a handful of aluminum geodesic dome structures remaining in the U.S. Under a lean construction budget, the architects reconfigured the outdated “theater in the round” performance space into a more flexibly modified thrust/proscenium arrangement while adding appropriately scaled public spaces and related amenities for the resulting 1,082 seats. Concrete slab over steel framing creates the proper house rake, while a truss system above the flytower-less stage supports lighting, sound, and rigging. Although not yet eligible for historic status, the geodesic dome is a well loved icon in the Cultural District, and the architects preserved the existing structure intact. The addition’s site-cast concrete panels, curtain wall, and galvanized steel clearly articulate the new construction. In the lobby, corrugated, perforated steel ceiling panels provide acoustic control and indirect light reflection, while punched openings frame views of the dome structure.

Citations

Denton ISD Natatorium at C.H. Collins Athletic Complex
Denton, Tex.
by VLK Architects

A joint venture project between the City of Denton and Denton Independent School District, the natatorium offers a competition pool with raised spectator seating, instructional pool with waterslide, classrooms, locker facilities, and office spaces for the city and district. The project’s outdoor aquatic park consists of a separate entry, an outdoor-pool bathhouse, waterslides, lazy river, children's pool, covered pavilions with picnic areas, and 500-person grass amphitheatre seating area. The architect employed an expressive wave-like roof structure that would symbolize the movement of water in the pool below by using long-span curving structural trusses. Inside and out, the new pool facility provides a welcoming and recognizable image for all who use it. Contrasting materials and geometric patterns delineate the exterior, while multiple brick colors and textures articulate and give scale to the façade. Photo © Craig Kuhner

Nancy Lee & Perry R. Bass Performance Hall
Fort Worth
by David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services, Inc., with architect of record HKS Inc.

This state-of-the-art, multiuse performance facility serves the Fort Worth Symphony opera and ballet companies and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Its small site posed numerous design constraints, requiring imaginative planning and careful coordination to achieve the critical 2,000-seat program without compromising function or the patrons' sense of partaking in grand events. The project, within Fort Worth's Sundance neighborhood, serves as the focal point and centerpiece of Fort Worth's emerging nightlife district. As the auditorium roof-height and stage-house grid are significantly higher than the surrounding structures, setbacks above the highest seating level on the front façade and the lower-height, flanking support spaces break down the apparent mass. The architects used stylized elements to articulate carefully the corner entries, central lobbies, auditorium mass, and stage house, which give the structure both a human scale and a dignified sense of grandeur. Photo © Hedrich Blessing

Student Awards

Jurors David Stanford, AIA; Richard Wintersole, AIA; and Jim Bransford, AIA, chose the following students, all from the University of Texas at Arlington, as 2003 award winners:
Honor Awards
• Saul R. Sloan, for “U-Conduit”
• Bradley James Sliva, for “Ice Cream Shop”

Merit Awards
• Chris Hill for “Fleeting Space”
• Chris Hill for “Big Fill.”

Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. Home Page